Thursday, May 05, 2005

On Election Night, I Did This

03.15 - I've run out of steam. This is all I've got for here. I'll be lurking around in the Chicken Yoghurt comments thread for a while yet. I found out the reason why many Tory seats take longer to declare: it's because they are rural seats so it's all a bit more spread out. I can't link to who posted it on the thread because I'm too tired. I think it was Unite but don't quote me.
Anyway, I've changed the title of this post to reflect it's now historic nature. Historic for me anyway. A final though: Reg Keys - what a speech.

03.00 - I'm running out of steam. This might be my last update of the night. It's an update on Alex Johnstone, the man who forgot to mention he was a Conservative in his election leaflet. He lost. To the Lib Dems. With a swing to the Lib Dems. From the Conservatives.
Sentence structure has left. The Building.

02.30 - So, its looking like a Labour majority of around 80. The Lib Dems seem to have increased their share of the votes without winning many more seats; it seems like it's going to be less than 60.
An aside - Paxman is shouting at David Dimbleby now, ha ha. We're all tired Jeremy, chill out man! Andrew Marr says Gorgeous will win in that there seat I can't remember the name of. It is getting late and my spelling has gone the way of something which has gone away.

I've got a question/theory:
Right now: Labour 219 seats, Tories 36 seats.
Why does it generally take longer to count the seats which the Tories will win? Is it because the Tory seats contain more voters, part of the Labour bias in the constituency make up we've all heard about? Or is it just that they can't be arsed to hurry in safe Tory seats?

02.18 - What the hell is going on? I'm just away to pop out to the local park to see if I can spot a couple of uniform swings. Lib Dems with a seat from the Welsh Nationalists with a 10% swing. They can't buy a vote off the Tories for toffee though. Reg Keys gets over 4000 votes against the liar. Blair is speaking, my TV is in danger!

01.51 - I'm cheered by the news that Dumbartonshire East is a Lib Dem gain from Labour. Aberdeen South was always a long shot, it needed a 9.5% swing away from Anne Begg, a popular and well known MP. It was close though.

01.45 - Aberdeen South. Deep Breath. Anne Begg 15,272 Vicki Harris 13,924. Damn, Blast and Blooger! Big reduction in the majority but it wasn't enough. Pants! (I just watched the result, the page isn't updated yet.)

01.31 - SNP gain Na h-Eileanan an Iar. Stuart will be pleased, and as it's another loss for Blair, so am I.

01.18 - And now for something completely different.
I've got cookies :o)

01.17 - Blackburn result declared. Good - Lib Dems 12% up. Bad - BNP 5.4% of the vote and more than Craig Murray. Sometimes I despair of this country.

00.53 - Southport: Lib Dem/Tory marginal. Lib Dem hold with 3% increase in vote. Turnout up 10%. Happy Happy Joy Joy!

00.33 - Not really much happening. I'm back listening to BBC Scotland coverage. Dull.
A heads up for anyone who hasn't seen Phil's stuff on the GE round-up blog. Heads up.
It's proper good and it looks nice too.

23.58 - First Scottish seat declared. Lib Dems up 7% in a safe Labour seat. Encouraging stuff.

23.53 - In Islington, woman admits to falling for the "Tories are Terrorist" spin. Votes Labour instead of Lib Dems. No Alternative, indeed.

23.37 - Boris on BBC1. Ah, well, ah, you know, this is ah, not a landslide for, ah, eh, Blair. It won't be a landslide and things. It's the end of Tony ah Blair, eh (ruffles hair). You've got to love his style.

23.12
- Just been listening to John Reid on BBC Scotland. What can I say? At least he'll be spending most of his time in London for the next 4 years. Aberdeen South has had the largest number of postal votes in Scotland. Investigation underway. No comment on whether the result will be delayed.

22.44
- Make's more sense to update in this direction. Sunderland South declared. Blair should be feeling "nervous". Labour 2,600 down. Turnout 49%. 4% swing to Tories.
And my BBC automatic update thingy appears to have crashed just as I was about to recommend it. Now I'm not going to, even if I do beleive in the BBC.

22.00
Who to watch? David, Richard or the numpties at BBC Scotland?
David and co first port of call, I reckon.

Exit poll - Labour majority of 66. Oh, please let that be right. Tony want a hankie?

BTW, I went for 63 in the election sweepstake.

Updates:
1. The Liberal Democrats on 53 seat? I don't think that'll be good enough to keep Charlie in his job for long. With any luck they should gain a few more through the wonder that is local opinion.
Would Prescott seriously become PM if Blair snuffed it? FFS!

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